Lost in Time
by Seully
Summary: Youko is curious about his new neighbor.


_Lost in Time_

_Prologue (The Priestess of Four Souls)_

_By: Seully_

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><p>"Priestess."<p>

Kagome turned, looking towards the approaching demon lord. It hadn't taken him long to find her this time, though he looked less than pleased about it - meaning it hadn't been easy for him to locate her either. She smiled at him over the top of the tall reeds and stood, pulling the thick black furs tighter around her shoulders and returning his dispassionate gaze with amusement.

"You were instructed not to leave camp."

She wasn't about to apologize for disobeying, though, and they both knew it.

Laughing a little, her warm breath dancing like puffs of smoke in the cool air, she adjusted her hold on the furs and replied, "you know I don't take orders very well, my lord."

Sesshoumaru continued to look at her in exasperation and, biting the inside of cheek to keep teasing comments to herself, she looked away and to the sky once more, appreciating the clear night and the soothing whisper of wind through the field of reeds. Sparse clouds raced across the surface of the moon, the sky paling near the horizon and the twinkling white constellations glimmering on the edges of darkest eddying depths of the night. She was so small in comparison and, lost to the enormity of it, accepting her small part to play in something much larger seemed a little easier to accept, and her burden to carry a little easier to bear.

She didn't look at him as she continued, her voice quiet and reverent, "I'm going to miss this."

She didn't hear him close the distance between them, but suddenly she felt the arm pressing along her own and sharing his body heat. Kagome glanced up at her stoic friend, grinning, but he refused to acknowledge her knowing look.

"You worry needlessly," he said, understanding what she was trying to say, "this Sesshoumaru will not allow harm to befall our pack."

"It's a war, Sesshoumaru," she said, sighing. "There are always casualties and even you can't control that." He slanted her a condescending look, and her lips puckered out in to a pout. "Okay, fine. You can't control first deaths, or final ones. There."

"Do you lack faith in your companions abilities?"

"Absolutely not!" She exclaimed, brows drawn together in consternation. She bit her lip. "If anything, I think they're going to over-do it once the battle starts," then, carefully not meeting his gaze, she added in a murmur, "and it's not them I'm worried about."

That caught his attention, just as she knew it would. He turned towards her, his tall form looming and searching her face with that piercing gaze. "What are you planning?" he asked at length. Beneath the ice in his voice she could hear the undertones of worry, and she felt her heart swell just a little bit - years ago, she couldn't imagine that the regal lord would deign to worry about his 'half-brother's wench.' They had come so far in a short time, and she was suddenly more grateful for his presence than ever.

For the longest time she had been the weakest member of the group- she was the heart, the one everyone confided their secrets to and protected at all costs. The years had past, though, and she had grown from a clumsy schoolgirl lost in time to their war strategist, resourceful and capable - but the other members had a hard time looking past who she used to be to who she had become. Sesshoumaru had befriended her much later, though, and had no such impressions of her. He was the only one she could confide her own concerns to without being told not to worry her pretty little head.

"I'm not sure," she told him honestly, "there are only so many outcomes I can control, and most of them require certain risks and ... sacrifices." She met his gaze, and her heart contracted painfully in her ribcage as she took him in. It was one thing to think all of these things by herself; it was another thing all together to look a friend in the eye and say it. Sesshoumaru was a friend, and a dear one. She didn't want to hurt him by lying to him - He deserved the truth, no matter how much she wanted to live in denial just a little bit longer. He knew she wouldn't knowingly endanger any of them, not when she had herself as a bargaining chip - She was sure he knew her character well enough to reach that conclusion by himself.

Even if they defeated Naraku, there was no predicting what would happen to the jewel - but allowing it to fall in to the wrong hands, or cause any more deaths, would be inexcusable. They had to prevent it at all costs - Kagome knew, with all of her heart, that she would sacrifice everything she had if it meant no one else was harmed by the jewel - and that if it would ensure her loved ones could have peaceful lives, she would happily die for that outcome. And, as the final battle with Naraku drew closer and closer, that was becoming a very real possibility.

It terrified her, the thought of dying, and thinking of all the places she wanted to go and things she wanted to do. She worried about her family and who would take care of Shippou in her stead... but the future was a luxury, she realized, and she didn't dare hope when there were so many bigger things at stake. She had to be brave, she told herself, and she would make sure someone knew what she was planning... and that someone would be there to take care of the others when she couldn't.

Kagome blinked back tears as her feelings overwhelmed her, but she fought to keep her chin up and her eyes locked stubbornly with his. Sesshoumaru watched her, interpreting the emotions crossing her face and the things she wasn't saying and, waiting a moment longer, he sighed and closed his eyes.

"You are foolish," he said at last, and Kagome's mouth almost twitched upwards at the affectionate insult. He opened his eyes and a clawed hand reached past her, tangling in her hair and pulling her in to his chest. His chin rested on the crown of her head. "Brave, but foolish."

Kagome let out a soft, wet laugh, hiding her face against his chest and arms coiling tightly around his waist. His body was strong and warm, and she soaked in the comfort he was offering. She may be a veteran of war, and she may be determined to see this through to her dying breath, but she was still just nineteen years old- and that was still too young to die. "If something happens," she whispered in to his chest, fingers curling a little tighter in the fabric of his shirt, "promise me that no one blames themselves. And don't you dare let them be sad when I will do everything in my power to give them long and happy lives. Please... Please take care of them." She choked a little on her whispered words and she bit down punishingly on her lip, trying to keep it in.

He said nothing, but he held her a little tighter and a growl reverberated through the both of them. A promise. Kagome knew that he would listen to her - or at least try to. That's all she could really ask for.

"Thank you."

* * *

><p>Kagome gasped for breath in the smoke and ash-filled air, pressing against the boulder and sliding down it to the dirt. The battle had been going on for ages, the skies darkened by the fires and all the lesser demons Naraku had recruited as his foot soldiers, and she no longer knew if hours had past and night had fallen or if it was still daylight beyond the black smoke around her.<p>

Another explosion shattered somewhere to the left, shaking the ground beneath her, and Kagome squeezed her eyes shut, tilting her head back and tried focusing on the sound of her harsh breaths and heartbeat. Calm down, she needed to calm down.

They had been divided by the enemy forces soon after the battle had begun, just as she had predicted, and she had only seen the bright flare of her friends' attacks in the haze of debris and between one fight for survival to the next, swinging her staff in to the enemies with muted bursts of blue fire and keeping them at a distance; she wasn't good at hand-to-hand combat, especially against demons easily twice her size and ten times her strength nor was she fond of swords, though Sango had insisted on at least one dagger as a last line of defense. She still had a quiver half-full of arrows and her short bow, too, she thought, taking stock, as well as a some sutras left in the satchel slung across her chest. She didn't know how much longer her supplies would last.

Forcing her breath to even out and her hands to stop shaking, she commanded herself to open her eyes and take advantage of the small reprieve.

Taking a water bottle from her satchel, she quickly gulped some down and poured the rest over the handkerchief tied at her throat and pulled it over her mouth and nose to filter out the smoke.

Kagome momentarily grimaced as mismatched lengths of hair fell in to her line of vision - a reminder that a demon had gotten a little too close - and quickly shoved the strands back, telling herself it didn't matter. She wiped antiseptic over the shallow claw marks on her bicep and the scrapes on her legs. None of the injuries would need stitches. She was thankful for small favors, though she knew that she had only been lucky so far because Naraku was focusing all his energies on Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, obviously planning to take down the strongest members of their group before dealing with the humans.

"Please be safe," she whispered to herself, fingers seeking out the bracelet beneath her sleeve for comfort. Shippo had made the delicate chain bracelet for her before Sesshoumaru sent both him and Rin away to Western citadel a couple of weeks ago. With Miroku's help, her little kit had imbued it with enough fox magic to conceal her scent even from the best of noses - It was his way of helping defeat Naraku and protecting her from a distance, and the small gesture of love meant the world to her. Shippou had tried so hard to be brave as he put it around her wrist, sniffling, and imperiously telling her that she better hurry up and come get him soon.

She hadn't made any promises then, knowing better, but she had hugged the kit for as long and hard as she could before Sango touched her shoulder and quietly said it was time for him to go.

He was safe, and she had to have faith that the others were safe as well. That's all there was to it. Taking another deep breath and exhaling slowly, Kagome gathered up her nerves and energy reserves, telling herself that it was time to go. Kagome pulled her legs under and, holding her staff at ready, peered over the bolder.

There were three demons several meters away along a cliffside, occasionally scenting the air then lowering their heads to tear in to the carcasses around them - Scavengers. And there, surrounding them, were the unmistakeable trenches of the wind scar in the ground. Inuyasha wasn't far and neither was Naraku- she could sense his thick, suffocating aura just ahead.

Not wanting to alert the evil half-demon to her location, she made quick work of the scavenger demons, her staff barely fizzling with holy energies as she aimed for one's temple, then retracted the opposite end in to a soft belly, and spun to catch the last behind the knees and, as it hit the ground, drove the glowing end through its' chest.

She continued down the valley, keeping low to the ground and her boots sinking in the ground made soft with entrails and other fluids. The sound of clashing blades was growing louder. She squinted through the smoke and burning fires ahead to see a familiar silver head of hair darting in and out of view, blade glinting and looking immaculate despite the carnage around him. Kagome wished she could yell out to him but she didn't dare alert anyone to her position, not with Naraku so close. He must have fused the jewel shards together, funneling their energies in to his battle against the dog brothers, because his miasma was growing progressively larger and more erratic. That meant th-

"Shit," she hissed, jumping and rolling to the side as a severed tentacle came soaring through the air towards her. She growled, shooting a dirty look in the direction she was almost certain Inuyasha must be in before picking herself out of the soft mud she had fallen in to. She gagged at the smell, shoving it off her jeans. She looked up just in time to watch as several black tentacles retracted in to the debris and shot out once more, roiling against the other thick appendages, lashing out at Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru who both dodged and severed in different directions.

Kagome swallowed, eyes trained on the figure between herself and the brothers, and on the completed jewel embedded in his chest. Kagome could have cried out at the state it was in. What little light remained couldn't be eradicated by the half-demon, not without erasing one of the opposing souls contained within, but it was a near thing.

The half-demon had his back to her, sneering down at her friends. It was easy to see the battle had gone on far longer that Naraku had expected, and the three were at a stalemate; neither could get close enough to land a hit on the other.

He was distracted and she wasn't about to let her opportunity to go to waste; she would only get one shot at this.

Laying her staff on the ground, she withdrew her bow and an arrow, her fingers hesitating over it's fletching for a moment then giving her head a firm shake, telling herself not to think and just act, and fit the bowstring in to its' groove.

She pulled down her mask, inhaling deeply to calm the thoughts and emotions rushing through her mind too quickly to process or give names to. She let them go through her, catching hold of her determination in an iron fist and refusing to let it go. The wind, hot with ash and ember, pushed her hair to the side and she pulled back the bowstring, taking aim.

His back was still to her and Kagome took one last breath before flaring her aura, pushing it outward moments before releasing her hold on the bowstring - it was enough to give him a warning, his barrier shifting to deflect the blazing arrow and turn to her with a snarl, tentacles shooting towards her. Kagome braced herself, knocking several aside with her bow in flashes of light, but she knew it wouldn't be enough -

She cried out, clutching at the tentacle that pierced her abdomen and the warm blood gushing through her fingers. She tried not to breath too deeply, not fully comprehending the pain, nor the black mass protruding from her body.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha screamed.

"I didn't think you would resort to such underhanded tactics, love," Naraku said, striding towards her with a feral expression. Her eyes slid away from his face to the pink-eyed Sesshoumaru in the distance. Unlike his brother who had gone crazy, screaming her name and hacking at the tentacles between them, Sesshoumaru looked impossibly tense as he met her eyes, muscles tightly bunched together and sword half-raised, as if he was barely restraining himself from coming to her aid. His gaze burned in to her own and she knew that he would throw their carefully laid plans away in that moment if she let him. She smiled weakly back at him, apologizing, just as Naraku grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. "Trickery doesn't suit one such as you."

She forced herself to grin. "Surprise," she said, then grimaced as her muscles clenched around the wound.

While Naraku's attention was no longer on the brothers, they could form an attack from behind and catch Naraku off-guard - and if that wasn't enough, she was within an arm's reach to attack him herself. Her goal was the jewel - the brothers would take care of Naraku. Two diversions, three against one. It wasn't much, but Naraku was the slippery sort and a head-on attack had been out of the question - If they wanted to end this once and for all, it had to be a little risky and something had to be bargained away in order to get close enough to win; that was her role in all this.

Any diversion created had to be a worthwhile one, and what was more worthwhile than the priestess who had been the thorn in his side for so long?

"I have to admit, this was reckless even for you," he said, though he sounded far away, reaching forward with his other hand to knot it in her hair and pulling her against him. "Did you really believe you could defeat me so easily, Ka-go-me?"

He was so close that she could feel his breath on her face. She took in the delicately structured nose, the fringe of wavy, soft-looking black hair that hung over those red eyes that burned with so much hatred and fury. His fingers were fisted in her own hair, close to her temple, and she could feel the tension along her scalp every time he jerked her this way and that, but she was only distantly aware that it should hurt much more than it did. He was snarling at her. She could see his mouth moving, nose scrunching with a particular nasty sneer, but she could only blink lethargically up at him, uncomprehendingly, as darkness gathered along the edges of her vision. _Why weren't Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru attacking?_

Her hands were on his chest and she flexed her fingers experimentally against the silky fabric, feeling the warmth radiating outwards from his form and the sentient jewel buried in his chest. It called to her, like a child wailing for its mother, and she reached out to sooth its cries-

Her head snapped to the side, held at an odd angle by his grip on her hair, and a warm, moist mouth was on her neck, licking its' way towards her earlobe. "Look how they mourn for you, priestess," he taunted. "Look how helpless they are to save you, you can see it in their faces. Not even that accursed blade shall be able to save you when I'm through."

The tentacle buried in her abdomen squirmed and Kagome felt like vomiting, lurching forward a little and swallowing back metallic-tasting bile. He laughed.

Kagome trembled. The jewel was so close, and all she had to do was reach out and take it. She was waiting for something to happen... She struggled to remember, pulling away from the heavy darkness that threatened to claim her senses and forced herself to focus. The brothers were suppose to attack, but they weren't and precious time was slipping away. She felt the swirl of energies throughout the battlefield, friends and foes alike, and, more than anything else, in sharp relief, the utter darkness the half-man pressed against her body. She grit her teeth. Her fingertips burned with power as they fisted in his shirt and, giving it everything she had in one last push, she drove her powers in to his ribcage as if it were a stake, blue fire decimating flesh and bone and soul. For a moment, red eyes could only meet hers in shock as she panted, then, with a weak snarl, she drove her powers further in to the jewel, not only to purify it - but to destroy it completely. _For them_. The jewel burned brighter and brighter, siphoning away the last of her energies and for a moment time seemed to stop, her hair floating around her, lightening crackling along her blood-splattered skin, and then it was exploding outwards in a sonic boom and a blinding light.

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><p>Kagome tried turning away from the annoying sound, but she couldn't. The short and loud beeps were spaced a few seconds apart, and the more she tried to ignore it the more persistently loud it became. Kagome cracked her eyes open, blinking as the things around her swirled and took shape, and she felt the pressure baring down on her face and she tried to breath, but something was in her throat and she couldn't-<p>

There was a moment of blind panic and, suddenly, someone was there extracting a long tube from her throat and pressing her shoulders in to the bed. Kagome couldn't stop coughing, tears leaking from her eyes at the awful sensation, fighting against the hold this person had on her. She could sense a faint demonic pressure in the room and her nails dug in the wrist of her attacker, whimpering when her powers didn't bend to her will. They weren't there at all.

Sleepiness suddenly overtook her and Kagome fought it, fearing for her life, but her eyes grew heavy and her hold on her attacker softened and fell away.

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><p>Kagome woke again sometime in the night, blinking several times and turning her head to the side, languidly watching the numbers change on the monitors beside the bed. A hospital. <em>I'm in a hospital<em>. Kagome took a deep breath, lifting the hand not connected to the IV to her face and covered her eyes. A choked sob.

She was alive.

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><p>Some time later, Kagome pressed the 'call' button and a young woman dressed in pink scrubs appeared. She was pretty with lavender-colored hair and dark eyes, but she seemed nervous as she approach the bed. There was something off about her in the dim light, Kagome thought, not able to put her finger on it. "You gave us quite the scare earlier," the nurse said, pulling the clipboard from the end of the bed. "Do you know where you are, miss?"<p>

Kagome nodded.

The woman smiled, however slight. "That's very good. Do you know how you got here?"

She wasn't sure how to answer that, and grimaced a little. Somehow, she didn't think the truth would go over very well.

The nervous woman seemed to take her expression as a 'no', though, and grimaced herself. She fiddled with the clipboard for a moment then, taking a deep breath, spoke as gently as she could. "You were attacked and found severely injured and unconscious in a park several weeks ago," she explained. "You were brought here and immediately went in to surgery to repair the most life-threatening of your injuries. You've been in a chemically induced coma for a little more than five weeks now. You woke up for the first time just a few hours ago but you were panicking and ripping out you lines, so you had to be sedated. Do you remember?"

"I..." Kagome started, but she didn't know what to say. She had assumed Inuyasha had brought her through the well for treatment, or that her family would be here to come up with an excuse for her injuries, but being found by strangers in a park of all places... it didn't even begin to make sense.

"I know it's a lot to take in at first, but you're out of harm's way now. Though we've been unable to contact any relatives without your name," she continued apologetically. "You didn't have any identification on you when you were found and there were no matches to you on our database. I'm sure someone must be very worried about you, miss..?"

"I'm...Higurashi," she said, struggling with her voice, "Kagome Higurashi."

The woman nodded, looking a little more relaxed now, and there was a humorous tilt to her lips now. "You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?" she teased, writing it down anyway. "Well, I'll see what I can do."

Kagome looked at her curiously, and couldn't resist asking. "Why?" She had an uncommon first and last name - she thought that, if anything, it would make it easier for the nurse to find.

"Oh, you know," the woman laughed, waving her hand in front of her, "Kagome has only been the most popular name for girls for a few centuries or so. Though it's hard to meet someone with the exact same name as Her."

Blinking up at the woman, Kagome was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought that she might, just maybe, still be dreaming. She hoped she was dreaming, because dread was quickly settling in the pit of her stomach. The alternative was too heart-stopping to contemplate.

"I'm... I don't understand," she whispered, fingers tightening their grip in the blankets.

The woman seemed to register the distraught expression on her patient's face for the first time, and hurriedly waved her hands in front of her. "I'm sorry! Sometimes I ramble, it gets me in trouble with the head nurse all the time. Especially when I'm nervous, like now," she laughed a little uneasily, "we weren't sure how you were going to react to anyone with demon blood after being attacked by one, especially with the way you woke up earlier - I thought you were going to rip my arm off and - oh, I shouldn't have said that, that was rude. You're just very strong for someone so lit- I'm sorry. I'll stop. Please don't tell my supervisor." She was blushing bright red now, not meeting her eyes as she visibly restrained herself from speaking anymore.

Kagome was thankful for that at least - because she was staring at her like she had grown a second head and, suddenly, the room seemed to be tilting sideways and closing in.

There was no way. _This wasn't right_.

_She can't mean_... Kagome pushed her senses outwards, terrified by what she might find, and almost cried out at the violent backlash that snapped along her nerve endings as her powers fought to emerge before fizzling out. She didn't even notice the nurse fluttering around her until a cool hand was patting her cheek and she blinked, snapping her eyes towards the face so very close to her own. The nurse was speaking, but Kagome didn't hear a word - instead, she was staring at the little white fangs peaking out from between moving lips.

Her nurse was a demon.

"I..." Her mouth worked uselessly for a few moments, thoughts moving too quickly to process. There weren't suppose to be demons in the modern era, or demons with fangs and lavender hair working in hospitals for all to see. She wasn't suppose to be the victim of a mugging in some park - she should have been taken through the well, damnit, and woken up to Inuyasha pacing her hospital room wearing that stupid baseball cap to hide his ears. And she was absolutely certain her blood had been in the database the last time she had been taken to ER, she thought, close to hyperventilating.

There was a horrible sinking sensation in her stomach. The jewel. That was the only explanation. Whatever had happened, whatever she had done, had changed the timeline completely.

"What have I done?" she choked out.

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><p><em>AN: Thank you for reading the prologue to my new story.^^ This is the first story I've written in almost five years and, while fun to write, I'm more than a little out of practice. I hope you enjoyed it, and please review!_


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